FON: The Business of Personalized Medicine

Business Model for Integrative Medicine, image of blog title with magnifying glass on a small house.

The Best Clinic and Business Model for Integrative Medicine

“If you’ve seen one integrative medicine center… you’ve seen one integrative medicine center.”~Anon I am often asked what’s the best clinic or business model to deliver integrative medicine. My standard reply is the quote above; it pretty much says it all. Frankly, when deciding the most appropriate, sustainable model for your specific organization, there are many important considerations. Recently, I led a workshop at the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO)

The Impact of ‘Escape Fire’ and What Comes Next

In his excellent post, “Revisiting Escape Fire: The War to Rescue Our Health,” integrative health publisher and thought leader John Weeks questions the impact of this highly regarded documentary as a truly effective healthcare delivery game changer, and he appeals for a harder-hitting sequel to help finish the job. But before we discuss what a sequel might cover, it’s important to consider the uneven impact the original has had since

Grow Patient Volume By Marketing Less

Perhaps the title of this post is a bit disingenuous because, more accurately, what I’m positing is that you can best grow your integrative medicine business (patient volume, product sales) by selling and marketing differently, if not exactly less. Frankly, your customers (aka patients) and prospective clients couldn’t care less about you, your ambitions and why your services or products are special. They’re focused on themselves, their own problems and

Monitor and Manage Your Online Reputation—NOW!

 “Reputation management is the practice of building, preserving and rectifying the public’s perception of your integrative clinic or enterprise.” In today’s über-connected world with its crawling social media channels, blogs, chat rooms and physician rating websites, there’s just no good excuse for failing to monitor and manage your online reputation. That includes the auto-default excuse: I’m too busy. Slow to Build, Quick to Tarnish Left unattended, your online reputation can

7 Reasons to Launch a Newsletter to Build Your Integrative Medicine Practice

You’re missing a big opportunity to grow your practice if you’re not currently publishing a newsletter and using email marketing. Here’s why: 1. Email Still Preferred Engagement Channel Despite all the hype about social media supplanting email, the truth is that 94 percent of Americans 12 years and older still regularly use email. Email remains the preferred method of communication even with the growth in social media platforms and messaging

How-to Guide: Launching Your Integrative Medicine Newsletter

My previous post provided seven key reasons why your clinic or center needs to become a publisher to better engage patients and prospective customers to grow your community. Following is a practical guide to get up and running quickly. First Choose an Email Vendor I’ve been using Campaign Monitor’s email marketing system for FON’s newsletter, but there are quite a few additional quality vendors to choose from with many offering

Free Access: Seminal Paper on Integrating Top 10 Dietary Supplements Into Cancer Care

A new paper titled Integrating Dietary Supplements Into Cancer Care, authored by the Clinical Practice Committee of the Society for Integrative Oncology, will be published in the October/November 2013 edition of SAGE’s Integrative Cancer Therapies, edited by Keith I. Block, MD. SAGE has graciously made the article available, accessible here for 30 days, starting September 1, 2013. A significant portion of cancer patients are now using dietary supplements. However, patients often don’t

8 Steps to Negotiating Integrative Medicine within Institutional Settings

John Weeks recently shared a post by Christian Nix entitled Ten Cardinal Sins Acupuncturists Make, illustrating how an acupuncturist might pragmatically get in the door of an institution, gain acceptance and ultimately, a gig. More to the point, it explains what not to do. I regularly write and speak on integrative medicine within institutional settings, and how best to secure physician and administrative leadership support. Thus I strongly relate to

medical business development, image of a stethoscope on a magazine.

The Business of Integrative Medicine: What they Don’t Teach You in Medical School and Fellowships

“A direct-pay business model requires entrepreneurial spirit, marketing know-how and willingness to take risks—three traits that many doctors lack.”~Erik Goldman This quote from Holistic Primary Care’s Erik Goldman says it all. I’ve cribbed for talks and workshops presented on building integrative health and medicine businesses and practices and, sometimes, I actually attribute this to Erik! Paying Their Dues A physician tirelessly invests more than a decade of her life devoted